


Stick Together

by JoMouse



Series: Sterek Valentine Week 2020 [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Hale Fire (Teen Wolf), Alternate Universe, Charmed - Freeform, Don't copy to another site, M/M, Magic, Magic Charms, Magical Derek Hale, Past Derek Hale/Paige, Sensitive Stiles Stilinski, Specter Laura Hale, Sterek Valentine Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22656211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMouse/pseuds/JoMouse
Summary: Cursed Derek Hale runs a magic charm tent at a renaissance faire while haunted by his dead sister. One day, Scott drags Stiles inside.Day 3 ofSterek Valentine Week 2020. Theme: Charmed.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Sterek Valentine Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1627507
Comments: 18
Kudos: 235
Collections: Sterek Valentine Week





	Stick Together

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and Salutations.
> 
> Well, today is it. I have no stories ready for the rest of the week, so cross your fingers that I manage to come up with something.
> 
> I struggled a lot with this theme but once I started writing, I'm not even sure where this story came from but it seemed with every word I wrote another twist appeared until I really didn't think I would finish it in time.
> 
> Big, huge thanks to my beta [Marie](http://quietzap.tumblr.com) who read it in chunks and cheered me on. If there are any errors from "One Year Later" on, they are all mine because she was already in bed when I finally finished.
> 
> Please let me know if I didn't tag anything.
> 
> Don't know 'em. Don't own 'em. Don't show 'em.
> 
> xx-Joey

Stiles stood in front of the booth, his eyes tracing the silver lettering against the black velvet. He looked over at his best friend, Scott, who was studying the trinkets lining the table, a serious expression on his face. They’d been standing there for several minutes and no one had come out to help them, Stiles taking it as a sign that they shouldn’t be messing around with these things. He didn’t even know why Scott was considering buying a love charm, he didn’t believe in magic, but Stiles did and that was why even though these were most likely just shyster items, he wanted to be far away from the table.

“C’mon, man, the person’s gotta be at lunch or something,” Stiles said, tugging on his arm. “Let’s come back later.” He knew that if he could distract Scott, he’d forget all about the booth tucked away at the back of the renaissance faire and they could leave without one of the gaudy and yet surprisingly reasonably priced trinkets. Not that he was looking, of course. “I heard the turkey legs are to die for.”

“Food?” Scott asked, head shooting up as he licked his lips. “We’ll come back later.”

“Sure, later,” Stiles said, leading him away, chattering about all of the different foods available to them at the food wagons.

Derek stepped out from the shadows of his tent, watching the two young men walk away. He’d gone to greet them when they’d entered the tent, but something stopped him. Growling, he glanced to his left watching the shimmering in the air like waves of heat on the expressway. “Dammit, Laura,” he muttered, not wanting to be heard. “What was that about? I probably missed a sale.”

“Danger,” Laura’s voice was a whisper on the wind, as it had been since the day she’d been killed by their power-hungry uncle, but instead of gaining her power she’d been turned into a specter that immediately killed him and then spent her time watching over, and annoying, Derek. Basically, nothing had changed from when she was alive.

“To body or spirit?” he asked, squinting against the sun, barely able to make out the shapes of the boys from this distance. His stomach growled, but he knew Laura would stop him from trying to get food until after the men had gotten their own and continued on through the faire.

“Heart,” Laura whispered before giggling and evaporating. 

“I have no heart,” he muttered as he waved a hand over the booth to drop the curtains so that he could get a bite to eat without worry of his wares being stolen.

Stiles sat on top of one of the picnic tables, eyes unfocused in the distance while he chewed on what little meat remained of a turkey leg. Scott had wandered off about thirty minutes earlier when his cell phone had rung but had yet to return. It didn’t take much to figure out the call had been from Allison, the girl he’d been crushing on and the entire reason he’d been looking at love charms to begin with, although Stiles suspected he didn’t need any help; he sat behind Allison in Chemistry 201 and saw the way she looked at Scott.

His eyes drifted back in the direction of the tent of charms and when he squinted, he saw that the drapes were drawn so he glanced away, startling when a man dressed in a black robe with silver details appeared in front of him. He glanced between the man and the tent, noticing the similarities and wondered if he worked there. When he was done cataloging the cut of the man’s cheekbones and the perfect stubble, he thought he should probably break the silence before the mutual staring became uncomfortable. “Hi? Do I have something on my face?”

“Hello,” the man said, shaking his head. “Do you mind if I sit?” He indicated the bench Stiles’ feet were resting on and Stiles nodded, shifting slightly to give him more room. “My name is Derek and no, you don’t have anything on your face.”

“Stiles.”

“What the hell is a Stiles?” Derek asked, watching him intently as he lifted a beignet to his lips, managing to eat it without getting powdered sugar all over himself.

“I’m a Stiles. You work at the faire or just get really into it?” he asked, feeling underdressed in his jeans and flannel next to him.

Derek tilted his head to one side and then the other. “Both.” He narrowed his eyes as a cold breeze kicked up, sending a shiver down Stiles’ spine. “I’m sorry. I have to go. It was nice meeting you, Stiles.” With that he was gone, lost within the crowds before Stiles could even blink.

“Weird meeting you, Derek,” he whispered, jumping when he swore he heard a giggle just beside his ear and another chill ran through him. He whirled around but there was no one sitting close enough to him to be the source of the giggle. Shaking his head, he stood and went in search of Scott, untying his hoodie from around his waist and putting it on. 

Derek walked back to the tent, frowning when he noticed the flaps had been disturbed. Waving a hand, they opened to reveal the interior and he cursed when he saw something missing among the wares. “Dammit, Laura,” he cursed. 

It was dark by the time Stiles got back to his house after having dropped Scott off at home, his ears hurting from his non-stop chatter about the perfect Allison. It wasn’t that he disliked Allison, she was actually pretty cool and seemed as taken with Scott as he was with her, but her family was really strict and she wasn’t allowed to date. Scott thought that she was lying and just didn’t like him and maybe she was, but Stiles saw the looks she snuck at Scott in Chemistry so he really didn’t think so.

His father’s cruiser was in the driveway, but they passed in the doorway and he told his dad to be safe and make sure to eat something healthy, which he knew wouldn’t happen because there were only so many options on the overnight shift. Stepping into the kitchen, he headed to the refrigerator and debated making something and running it up to the station. He didn’t have classes in the morning and he wasn’t particularly tired, so he decided to try to throw together a quick curry chicken salad.

Taking off his hoodie, he tossed it on the back of the chair, distracted when something fell out of the hood and hit the ground with a clink. Squatting down, he reached under the chair, expecting to come back with his keys, instead he found a small silver charm. He studied it, the two intricately designed wolves heads, their noses touching to create a heart shape, a triquetra between their chests. As he held it closer to his face, he swore there was a faint red glow coming from inside it, but as he turned it left and right he couldn’t figure out how it was done. He remembered seeing it earlier in the day at the faire, but he had no idea how it had gotten into his pocket.

Hanging his head, he remembered in his hurry to get Scott out of the tent, bumping his hip against the table and the charms jingling together. It must have fallen off and somehow ended up inside the hood of the sweatshirt tied around his waist, remaining until now. Which meant that Stiles had inadvertently stolen something, possibly from Derek.

“Well, fuck,” he said, as he grabbed his keys to head back to the fairgrounds in hopes it was still open.

Derek waved a hand, closing the flaps to his tent so he could use his magic to put away the trinkets and charms; he’d only made the mistake of leaving them in the tent once and they’d lost half of their inventory. Luckily, most of them had anti-theft charms until they were sold and were recovered within a week’s time. He chuckled as he remembered the idiotic teenager who had returned half of what had been taken, his hands and face a bright purple color; it wasn’t his fault he’d charmed them after watching  _ Big, Fat Liar _ .

“He’s coming.” Laura’s voice floated through the tent, her incorporeal body disturbing the fabrics on the tables and his own cloak that he’d hung over the back of a chair. 

Pulling his leather jacket tighter over his chest, the night air already cooler than normal for this time of year in California, he ducked out of the tent. The faire was closed, but there were many ways for people to sneak inside so he wasn’t even a little surprised when he saw Stiles sneaking between shadows to make his way over to where Derek was standing.

“I’ve already spotted you,” he called out, chuckling when Stiles froze and then tripped over his own feet and sprawled in one of the few circles of light along the paths. “Good evening, Stiles.”

Scrambling to his feet and running a hand over the back of his neck, Stiles kicked at the dirt on the ground and Derek fully expected an “Aw, shucks,” to come out of his mouth.

“I wasn’t sure if you were one of those that live on the fairgrounds,” he said.

“I don’t,” Derek responded. “I was just leaving.”

Stiles looked up at him, surprised how different he appeared simply by trading out his cloak for a leather jacket and, Stiles licked his lips, sinfully tight jeans and tee shirt. “I swear I didn’t steal it,” Stiles blurted out, reaching into his pocket pulling out the charm and holding it out to Derek, the chain spilling out over his palm.

“I have no doubt,” Derek responded, reaching out and taking the charm, their fingertips brushing and a spark shooting between them. Stiles jerked his hand back, shaking it slightly. 

“Static electricity’s a bitch,” he said.

“If you say so.” Derek was looking over the charm, holding it up to the light, relieved to see red still glowing faintly from within. “Thank you for returning it.”

“He’s hungry,” Laura hissed in Derek’s ear.

“I’m not,” Stiles argued and then blinked in confusion. “Um, I mean, what?” He swore he’d heard a woman speaking but he and Derek were the only two people he’d seen since he’d snuck in through the hedge along the parking lot.

“I was heading out to get some food,” Derek said, glaring to his left. “Would you like to join me? My treat, for returning the charm.”

Stiles was about to make excuses despite having not eaten since the turkey leg and curious to get to know Derek more, but his stomach growled loudly enough that Derek huffed out a laugh and a woman giggled. “Okay, seriously, who are you?” Stiles shouted.

“Derek.” He pointed to his chest with raised eyebrows.

Stiles scoffed. “I know that! Who is the woman?” He looked around Derek and then closed his eyes for a moment and breathed deeply, opening them again and looking directly at Laura. “Who is she and why is she haunting you?”

Derek’s mind screeched to a halt. Stiles could see her? Stiles had the sight or something similar to it? He swallowed with difficulty but fought for the words. “She’s my sister and honestly, I think she does it just to be a pain in my ass.”

Laura laughed again and Stiles shook his head. “Never had a sibling myself, but I could see sticking around to bug my best friend. Can you show yourself more than that?” He waved his hand at her, the light shimmered a little stronger, but Laura could only hold form for a few moments before fading back into the shimmer. “You’re not your typical spirit,” he observed and Derek gaped at him as Stiles turned to study him, eyes narrowed. “You have real magic.”

Derek nodded, waving a hand and the flaps of the tent opened behind him and gestured for Stiles to enter. “My magic isn’t strong,” he explained as the flaps shut again. “I’m good at charms though.”

“Like the wolves?” Stiles asked.

“No. I didn’t create that one. My ex-fiancé’s mother created it,” Derek explained.

“And you’re selling it?” Stiles asked, trying to remember where on the table he’d seen it, before his eyes fell on a glass case with a lock and key lying open at one end. “It was locked up. How did it fall in my hoodie?”

“It didn’t,” Laura whispered. “You called it.”

“I can see and hear spirits, I don’t have magic,” Stiles explained. “I couldn’t have called it if I tried.” Stiles’ stomach growled again and he laughed.

“Food and explanations,” Derek said. “As long as you don’t mind getting carry-out and heading back to my place?” 

His tone was hesitant and alarms should have been blaring in Stiles’ head but he grinned and glanced at Laura. “Is he trying to lure me to his lair and kill me?”

“I don’t think killing you is anywhere on the list of things he’d like to do to you,” she responded before giggling again.

“Shut up,” Derek growled at Laura and Stiles followed him out of the tent and towards the parking lot. Laura’s presence faded as they walked. “She’ll meet us at the house. She finds car rides boring and she’s too distracting when I drive.”

“Makes sense,” Stiles said, shrugging and shoving his hands in his pocket. “I wanted to ask you about the pendant. The red glow.”

“All part of the story,” Derek said. “What would you like to eat?”

Once they’d settled on something, Derek gave him his address and Stiles plugged it into his GPS. He also got Derek’s number in case he got lost. He sat in the parking lot for a few minutes after Derek had pulled out in a sleek black car, texting his dad letting him know where he would be going just in case Derek and his sister weren’t as trustworthy as they appeared. Once that was done, he started a text to Scott as well, but deleted it without sending and put his Jeep into gear and started the GPS to an address in the middle of the woods on the edge of town. Shaking his head, Stiles questioned what had become of his life since his mother’s death.

His mother had always believed in the supernatural and Stiles had listened to her tales in fascination. His father would playfully scold her for telling a child stories that would give him nightmares, but they never did. Until he witnessed his mother’s death. 

She’d been sick for a long time, frontotemporal dementia ate at her mind until she couldn’t recognize anyone around her and lived in a constant state of fear. Once she’d screamed that Stiles was trying to kill her and he’d run from the hospital crying and got lost in the woods until a nice woman had found him and brought him to the Sheriff’s station where his dad was frantically arranging a search for him. He never even got to thank that woman and a couple of nights later he was back in his mom’s hospital room and she called him by name, gesturing him closer to the bed.

He’d climbed up next to her, laying his head on her chest and wincing at how thin she’d become, but her heart was beating steadily in tandem with the monitor behind him. She stroked his hair and began to whisper to him in the same tone she’d always told him stories in, so he’d listened, committing each word to memory. 

“You have a gift, my dear Mieczysław. You won’t know what it is yet, but very soon it will come to you. You will be frightened at first, but remember what I’ve always told you: Not all things unknown are scary or dangerous.” 

He’d promised to remember as she continued talking about one day helping someone find their heart and he’d laughed and asked how someone could live without a heart and she’d frowned and said it was a sad and lonely existence but that  _ he _ would help save them from that life. As she continued talking, Stiles couldn’t stop thinking about the gift she’d mentioned. He’d wanted to ask where his gift was, if it was in the hall closet at home. It wasn’t until after he’d been woken by the screeching of the heart monitor and the nurses tumbling into the room and pulling him off of his mother, that he found out even if he didn’t know it at the time.

As the nurses and doctors worked on his mother’s body, the sounds of the room faded away and Stiles watched heat waves lift from her body and fill the air above it all. The longer he watched, the more he could see until the waves took the shape of his mother who smiled at him and whispered one last time, “I love you, my dear Mieczysław,” before the waves disappeared and all of the noise came rushing back, overwhelming him until he was curled up in the corner rocking with his hands over his ears.

_ “Your destination is on the left,” _ broke through his thoughts, bringing him back to the present and he looked up and to the left, gaping at the large house that sat at the end of a winding driveway. 

The house was still dark as he parked near the front steps and he didn’t see any sign of Derek’s car, but he saw the driveway wind around the back of the house and it could be back there. He shot off a text anyway letting him know he’d arrived. It was only a moment before he texted back that he was only a few miles out, having just left the Thai place and that Stiles should just knock on the door because Laura had figured out how to work locks.

Chuckling, Stiles climbed out of the jeep and studied the house, startled but unsurprised to see faces looking out of the windows at him, a lot of faces. His memory started pulling forth an incident from shortly after his mom had passed away, a huge fire out in the woods that had killed a large part of a family celebrating a wedding.

One of the faces in particular caught his eye, a young girl with soft eyes, a wreath of flowers upon her head. Her lips were downturned when he first looked at her but when he wiggled his fingers in greeting, a smile crossed her face before she quickly disappeared in a swirl of white. “This is gonna be strange,” he said to himself, thinking of some of the other spirit heavy locations he’d visited.

The lock turned just as he lifted his hand to knock, so he opened the door and braced himself for the chill that ran through him but was met with surprising warmth. The spirit of the young girl stood at the bottom of the stairs, hands held out in greeting. He stepped forward just as Laura swirled around him, chilling him. “Who is she?” Stiles asked.

“Who?” 

“The girl in white,” he said, gesturing towards the girl whose lips had twisted into a mischievous smirk.

“There’s no one here but us,” Laura said and Stiles traced her movements around the room before settling next to him again, cold nudging him in the side like an elbow.

“Are you kidding? There’s at least thirty spirits here, she’s just the strongest,” Stiles said. “I don’t know if you know the history of the house-”

“I grew up here,” Laura snapped and the chill became white hot and Stiles yelped, backing away from the anger. “I know what happened.”

Stiles raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “I’m sorry. Sorry. I was really young when it happened and I didn’t know.” Laura disappeared before he could get all of his words out. Turning back to the other girl, he forced a smile. “Hello.”

The girl smiled and waved, gesturing for Stiles to follow her up the stairs. “I can’t do that,” he explained. “This isn’t my house and I don’t want to go exploring without Derek’s permission.” The girl frowned when he said Derek’s name and Stiles felt a wave of sadness wash over him, bringing tears to his own eyes. He looked her over again and frowned at what she was wearing. “It was your wedding, wasn’t it?” The girl nodded, her hands clasped in front of her before raising one to her chest and then reaching it out towards Stiles. “This would be easier if you would speak, but I’m guessing that you can’t.”

The door behind him opened and Stiles turned to see Derek coming through the door with his arms laden with brown paper bags that were giving off a delicious aroma. As Stiles looked between Derek and the girl, the sadness gripping his heart increased until he couldn’t stop the tears from spilling over his cheeks.

“Stiles,” Derek said, setting the bags down on the ground and hurrying forward. “What’s the matter? Did Laura do something?” Stiles shook his head, opening and closing his mouth a few times, the words refusing to tumble out. “What is it?”

“Can’t you feel them?” Stiles finally said, his fingers twisting into Derek’s shirt. 

“Shit,” Derek muttered. “They’re still here?” Stiles nodded. “I never would’ve brought you here if I’d known.” He cupped Stiles’ face so he could look in his eyes. “We can leave.”

The girl appeared over Derek’s shoulder shaking her head, eyes wide in panic and Stiles found himself mirroring the movement. Derek took a step back, holding Stiles’ wrists gently and pulling them out of his shirt, leading him to the right into a sitting room filled with soft looking sofas and chairs. Derek backed Stiles up to the sofa, allowing him to drop down when the back of his knees hit the edge. “Stay right here. I’ll be back with something to drink,” Derek said. “Laura, get in here and keep an eye on him.” He waited, studying Stiles’ face until the shimmer announcing Laura’s arrival appeared next to Stiles and then he excused himself.

Once Derek was out of his line of sight, Stiles took a deep breath, pulling his phone out of his pocket and opening google. “Laura, I’m not trying to be offensive, but where’s your body buried?” he asked as he started typing into the search engine bar. 

“Why?” she asked.

“If you’re a spirit, you would know there are other spirits here. You’d be connected in some way, but you didn’t know this house was full of spirits and I mean, full. I saw at least fifteen in the windows as I walked up, but the strongest is the girl.” He dropped his phone. “What’s your last name?”

“Hale,” she said, without hesitation and looked over Stiles’ shoulder as he lifted his phone and started typing again. “And I don’t know where my body is, buried probably.”

“You should know,” Stiles insisted and hit the first link that came up in his search, eyes flying over the screen, the frown on his face deepening as he continued reading. “There’s no body. They declared you dead because your uncle claimed responsibility, but when they searched the river where he said he’d thrown your body, it wasn’t there.”

“What does that mean?” Laura asked. “And what does it have to do with the other spirits?”

“One problem at a time,’ Stiles said, dialing his phone. “Hey, pops, can you do me a police type favor?”

His father huffed on the other end of the phone but eventually agreed to look into hospitalized Jane Doe’s that had been discovered downriver from Beacon Hills around the time of Laura’s ‘death’. Laura’s shimmers were intensifying when Stiles hung up. “You think I’m still alive?”

“I don’t know,” Stiles said, “but it’s worth a shot and would explain why you can’t fully materialize for long. Do you feel a pull to be anywhere besides here?”

“Sometimes, but I mostly feel pulled to Derek. When my uncle attacked me, all I could think is it would break Derek, he would have no one left and he already didn’t have a heart what would he do without his only remaining family?”

“He would have had your uncle if he hadn’t gone insane and confessed to your murder,” Stiles pointed out.

“Well, I may have had something to do with that push towards insanity,” Laura admitted and they shared a sad chuckle.

“Wait, did you say Derek doesn’t have a heart?” Stiles thought about his mother. “How is that possible? How can he live?”

“I don’t know how much I’ve been living without it,” Derek said, entering the room with a tray carrying a couple mugs of coffee and the thai food dished up. “Depends on your definition of living.”

“I define it as having life,” Stiles said.

“Well, I have life.” Derek settled next to him on the sofa, handing over one of the mugs of coffee. “I just don’t have  _ a _ life.” He sipped from his mug. “Why so curious about my lack of heart?”

“Because I get the feeling you’re not being metaphorical and my mother told me I would meet a man without a heart,” he explained, smirking when Derek choked on his coffee. “Are you willing to tell me how you lost it?”

Derek leaned forward and set his mug on the table, resting his elbows on his knees and rubbed his hands over his face with a groan. Laura made sympathetic sounds and the girl in white hovered over Derek frowning, her hand going from her heart to Derek’s back repeatedly while she locked eyes with Stiles. 

“When I was young, way too young,” Derek started, his voice muffled by his hands, “I met a girl at school. She was beautiful and sweet and she had this mole right here.” Derek looked up, trailing his fingers beneath his left eye and Stiles looked at the girl in white, his heart breaking as he realized who she was.

“It was your wedding,” Stiles breathed out, the echo of his earlier realization even more heartbreaking when Derek gave one sharp nod.

“We were both just barely eighteen, but I loved her so much,” Derek said, his tone pleading, begging Stiles to understand he wasn’t being stupid. “Her mother hated me, claimed I’d brainwashed Paige into marrying me, into throwing away her future as a world famous cellist.” 

Stiles had to bite back a laugh when Paige rolled her eyes and he felt a push from Laura against his shoulder. “What happened?”

“Laura had taken me out for breakfast that morning, a last meal as a single man type of thing. I think she just didn’t want me to get too nervous,” Derek said and Laura made an affirming sound. “I got dressed at her apartment and headed to the house just before the ceremony was supposed to start.” He swallowed hard and looked up at Stiles, noticing him staring over his shoulder and tried to follow his gaze. “What do you see?”

“Paige,” Sties whispered and Derek’s hand flew to his chest and he couldn’t pull in a full breath.

“I’m sorry,” he gasped out, imagining how much her spirit must hate him for the fire. If he hadn’t asked her to marry him, if he’d just listened when her mother threatened him, she’d still be alive and he’d still have a heart. “It’s all my fault.”

Paige was shaking her head, her own eyes shining and she kept touching her chest and Derek’s back and Stiles tried to understand what she was trying to say and hated that he had no idea. He explained what he was seeing to Derek and he raised his head, eyes wide, his own hand going to his chest and then out again. “Yeah, like that,” Stiles affirmed.

“She still loves me,” Derek said and Paige nodded, a smile growing on her face as he sat up more looking around the room. “It was something we did when we weren’t able to talk. We’d touch our chest and hold it out to the other person, I did it at her concerts from the front row and she’d do it from the bleachers at my game.”

Paige moved until she was kneeling in front of Derek and looking up into his face. “She’s right in front of you,” Stiles told him. “Smiling.”

Derek focused on a point that wasn’t quite Paige’s face, but he touched his chest and held it out towards her. Stiles frowned when she shook her head. “She doesn’t believe you.” She turned to glare at Stiles and shook her head. “Okay, she believes you but she’s shaking her head.” Paige turned back to Derek and placed her hand over his chest, Derek shivered as she took it away and put it over Stiles’ chest. 

Derek watched Stiles face twist in confusion as he looked down at Derek’s chest and then his own, shaking his head slowly. “We just met this afternoon,” Stiles said.

“What is she saying?”

“I think she’s saying you love  _ me _ ?” 

“I can’t love you,” Derek said.

“I know, we just met!” Stiles said, throwing his hands in the air, but his cheeks were warming under Derek’s gaze.

“I can’t love you because her mother took my heart to punish me for Paige’s death!” Derek argued. “She had refused to come to the wedding, but she either had a change of heart or she heard the sirens because she was in the yard when Laura and I pulled up just behind the fire trucks. They’d passed us on the way to the house.” Derek ran his hands through his hair, tugging on the ends.

Paige was frantic again and Laura spoke up next to him just as Stiles’ phone rang. “Something’s wrong.”

“There’s a shit ton wrong,” Stiles snapped, grabbing his phone and seeing that his father was calling and answering.

“I feel a pull!” Laura shouted before disappearing and Derek’s head snapped to his right where she’d been just a moment before. 

His dad was talking fast as soon as the call connected. A woman matching Laura Hale’s description was a Jane Doe at a hospital about twenty miles down the river. HIs dad was on his way there to make an ID based on a photo he had on file from the Hale fire. “Do you want to meet me there?” Stiles looked between Derek and Paige. 

“We will, but it’s going to be a bit. Derek’s having a...situation,” Stiles explained poorly.

“Son, what’s going on?” his father demanded, his voice soft.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Stiles said, fighting the urge to just tell him everything but this was something he’d shared with his mother, his father was never involved and he didn’t want his father to think that the same disease that had taken his mother was befalling him as well.

His father let out a sigh. “You’ve met the man with no heart,” he said matter-of-factly. “I always hoped your mother was talking crazy, but a part of me knew better. I’ll go find Laura. You help the man and invite him to dinner, sooner rather than later.” With that he hung up, leaving Stiles gaping at the phone.

“Stiles?” Derek asked, pulling his attention back. “What’s happening?” He looked so lost that Stiles felt a wave of calm wash over him. 

Stiles took a deep breath and started at the beginning, telling Derek about his mother and her final words to him. He told a few tales of past spirit interactions before leading up to that day and the things Derek already knew. “There is no anger in this house, Derek. These spirits, all of them, are just sad but they are not angry. They don’t blame you in the slightest.”

“But it’s-”

“No, it’s not,” Stiles repeated. “Every time you say that, Paige starts shaking her head so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t pop off and roll down the hall.” Derek chuckled at that and Paige rolled her eyes again.

“Then whose fault is it?” Derek countered.

Stiles looked up at Paige who frowned and looked around the room and Stiles could feel frustration flowing through him. “Was it someone you knew?” Stiles asked. Still frowning, Paige nodded. 

“Was it a guest at the wedding?” Derek asked. “There wasn’t a very large guest list and a lot of people weren’t there yet.” He swallowed and rubbed his hand over his face again, brows drawing together in the center. “Mostly just my family.”

Stiles squeezed his bicep, knowing that words didn’t fix anything. He looked up at Paige who was moving her head back and forth from one shoulder to the other in an indecisive manner. “She doesn’t know how to answer that.”

“Why? Either the person was a guest or they weren’t,” Derek said.

“Unless, they were invited but weren’t supposed to be there,” Stiles said, a horrifying thought came to him. Paige pursed her lips and nodded. “Fuck.”

“Her mother,” Derek breathed out. “Her fucking mother killed my family. Killed her own daughter.” He shook his head and pushed to his feet, starting to pace. “She did all of this and then stole my fucking heart!” His voice was a roar and Paige looked startled, but then she smiled and gave a decisive nod. 

She floated over to Derek, touching his chest and then returned to Stiles to touch his. Then she nodded again, touching Stiles and returning to Derek before disappearing, a sense of peace washing over the house. He allowed himself to feel the house and it was empty, just he and Derek. “They’re gone.”

“All of them?” Derek asked, frowning. “Even Paige?”

“I’m sorry. She’s gone,” Stiles said.

“And I still don’t know how to get my heart back or if I can,” Derek said. 

“My mom-”

“I know what your mom said,” Derek said, his voice soft but still biting. “But we don’t even know where to…” He trailed off when there was the sound of breaking glass by the front door.

Stiles turned to go, but Derek held him back, keeping him behind him as they approached the foyer slowly. Looking down, Stiles gaped at the pile of broken glass from the window above the door. In the center was the wolf charm, the one that had followed him home. 

Derek bent down, his fingers hovering over the charm. “Pick it up,” Stiles said and Derek did, standing and turning to face him, the charm laying in his palm between them.

“What do we do?”

“How did she do it?” Stiles asked. “How did she curse you?”

Derek closed his eyes. “Laura and I pulled up and got out of the car. Her mother was standing there, watching the house burn. I knew she was a powerful mage, but I didn’t know how powerful until she turned and saw us. She knocked me off my feet and started screaming about how I was supposed to be in the house.” He shook his head, hand squeezing shut around the charm. “She said that my love destroyed her daughter, made her life as worthless as mine was going to be. I thought she was going to kill me, but she was drawing the attention of the emergency workers so she just approached me and hissed softly that my heart would never destroy another life except for mine.

“She walked away and my chest got really tight. I couldn’t breathe and my head was pounding. One of the EMT’s grabbed me and started looking me over, but could find nothing wrong with me except that he couldn’t find a pulse. None. Since I was walking around and talking, he blamed his equipment but I just knew what had happened.” He ran his hand over his chest. “The next morning, the charm showed up outside the hotel we were staying at. I tried putting it on, but it burned. I can hold it, but it can’t touch my chest.”

Stiles looked down at it in his hand, the red glow growing brighter under his gaze. Reaching out, Stiles laid his hand over the top of it, feeling the same spark from earlier and the heat growing. Taking a deep breath, he pulled his hand back and laid it over his own chest and then laid it over the charm before laying it over Derek’s chest and a spark strong enough almost knocked him off balance. Derek grabbed his wrist before he could fall, holding his hand in place over his chest.

The room hummed around them, the glow from the charm growing to engulf both of them. Just as the heat became unbearable there was a loud cracking sound and the glow disappeared and Derek dragged in a huge breath, stumbling backwards and releasing Stiles’ wrist. He put his hand over his chest and smiled. “It’s there.” He grabbed Stiles’ hand and pressed it to his chest. “It’s beating!”

“It is!” Stiles grinned. Reaching out, he grabbed the chain from Derek’s hand, but when he pulled it back, only half of the charm was still attached, the other half lying in Derek’s palm. “The charm is literally broken.”

Derek grinned and pulled Stiles into a hug, his laughter shaking the both of them until Stiles couldn’t help but join in. They broke apart when Stiles’ phone buzzed over on the floor by the sofa and he dove for it, seeing his father was FaceTiming him.

“Dad?” Stiles said. “What’s wrong?”

“Look who I found sitting up and waiting for me when I got here,” the Sheriff said, turning the phone so he could show off a brunette in a hospital gown looking pissed off until she looked at the screen.

“Derek!” she shouted.

“Laura!” he responded and grabbed the phone out of Stiles’ hand, allowing himself to be pulled out of the house and pushed into Stiles’ car. He kept talking to his sister, filling her in on everything that had just happened, as Stiles made his way towards the hospital, laughing when Derek refused to end the call until he was standing in the hospital room and could see Laura for himself.

#  **One Year Later**

The tent flaps were tied back and Stiles leaned against the table, rearranging charms and ducking out of the way of pieces of popcorn that Laura was throwing at him from the other side of the table, looking exhausted yet happy. Today was the first day of the renaissance faire and the three of them had been up late the night before double checking the inventory so they were all a bit lethargic now.

The smell of turkey filled the tent and he smiled up at Derek who had returned laden down with food that he set on a table behind another set of curtains where they could eat without destroying the illusion of magic they created for the patrons. Derek shrugged out of his jacket and grabbed his cloak off the coat rack, slipping it over his head and grinning at Stiles as his head popped out.

“I remember the first time I saw you,” Stiles said. “You were wearing that cloak.”

“I wear it all the time here,” Derek said, shrugging. “I remember you and Scott looking at charms and Laura not letting me come out to greet you.” 

They both turned to look at her and she just shook her head, smiling sadly. When she’d woken up in the hospital, she had no memory of her time as a specter. The last thing she’d remembered was her uncle attacking her and falling into the water. According to all reports, she was found a couple of days later and taken to the hospital where she remained in a coma until the Sheriff had come in and her eyes had popped open. The first word out of her mouth was Derek’s name.

She was still in physical therapy and tired easily, but she was doing a lot better than she had been the first few months. She lived at the house with Derek, occupying one of the first floor rooms and she had recently started dating one of Stiles’ dad’s deputies. Stiles had enjoyed watching her improve and seeing her relationship with Derek, no one made him smile the same way Laura did.

Speaking of smiles, he glanced over and saw Derek watching him. “What? Do I have something on my face? I haven’t even eaten anything.”

Derek’s face flushed as he looked away. “No. Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.” 

Stiles shrugged and walked out of the tent saying he’d be back as soon as he found Scott wandering around. Derek watched him go, frowning when Laura threw popcorn at his head. “Stop it.”

“Stop wallowing and ask him out!” Laura snapped. “You’ve been mooning over him for as long as I can remember.”

She wasn’t wrong. After Stiles had returned Derek’s heart to his body and drove him to see Laura, he became a regular fixture in their lives. He turned up almost daily at the faire for the rest of the season and Derek began teasing him about being unemployed and then turned around and offered him a job for the rest of the faire.

He soon learned that Stiles spent a lot of time working as an independent computer consultant and did other odd jobs to earn money, most of which he did at night while suffering from insomnia. It wasn’t long before Stiles would show up on Derek’s doorstep, laptop in a bag over his shoulder and tired eyes blinking at him and they’d sit up in the living room with Netflix running while Stiles worked and Derek attempted to sleep.

Derek knew that something had happened when Stiles had returned his heart, some kind of connection but he’d never acknowledged how strong it was until one night, Derek had shot out of bed in a panic, his skin crawling. He’d leapt out of bed, running down the stairs and he was out the door and halfway to Stiles’ house before he realized he was still in just sweatpants and he had no idea what was happening.

He pulled up to Stiles’ house and raised a hand to knock on the door just as it burst open and Stiles flew out the door and into his chest, knocking the both of them to the ground. Stiles was sobbing and shouting and the only words Derek could make out were ‘dad,’ ‘shot,’ and ‘hospital’. He got Stiles into his car and drove him to the hospital.

He pulled up to the emergency entrance to let Stiles out and he’d ducked back into the car to see if he was coming. Derek gestured to his bare chest and feet and said he was underdressed and Stiles looked wide eyed for a second before he threw the bag he’d been carrying when he ran out of the house at Derek. “They’re my dad’s, but they might fit.”

That was the night he’d met Scott and Scott’s mom, the two of them wary of him at first but soon welcoming him as if they'd known each other forever as they waited with them for news about Stiles’ father.

Stiles’ father had been fine, the bullet had barely grazed his shoulder but he’d hit his head when he went down and knocked himself out. Derek didn’t even question Stiles pulling him into the room to meet his father once the man had woken up and didn’t let go of his hand the entire time they were in there. 

It was after that night that Derek began to acknowledge he had feelings for Stiles and there were nights he remembered Stiles telling him about Paige and the touching of their chests. He looked up when Laura snapped in front of his face. 

“You always space out when I tease you about Stiles,” she said, holding his face and studying him. “Do me a favor?”

“What?”

“Hold this.” 

Derek took the item from her before he registered what it was, his mind suddenly overrun with feelings, the type of warmth he got whenever he thought about Stiles magnified. He glanced down and saw that it was half of the charm that used to hold his heart; he thought they had disappeared the night it had broken. 

“Where?”

“It was in the glass case,” Laura said, pointing at the gold case they locked the more expensive and not-for-sale items. “Just that half though.”

Stiles walked back into the tent, his head turned back, laughing at something Scott was saying but as soon as he entered, he felt a burn at his chest and he looked up to see Derek staring at him. In his hand was the other half of the charm that hung from a chain around his neck, hidden beneath his shirt. He wasn’t magic like Derek, but he’d tried out a charm on it himself and it appeared to be working or at least projecting what he was hoping was real.

“Um…” He reached in and pulled out the charm, letting it fall against his shirt.

“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Laura said, reaching for Scott and pulling him out of the tent.

Derek stepped closer to Stiles holding up the charm to the half around his neck. “You fixed it.”

“Well, I added a chain. I don’t think it would be safe to make it whole again,” Stiles said, shrugging and ducking his head. 

“You did something to it.” He moved closer and his voice lowered. “I felt it.”

“Felt what?” Stiles wrestled with himself to keep his emotions off his face, not wanting to get his hopes up too high in case he was still wrong.

Derek moved closer again and waved a hand, closing the flaps on the tent, pitching them into a muted darkness. He murmured a few words and the battery-operated candles around the tent lit up, casting a warm glow around them. “Warm. Loved. Safe.” 

Each word brought Derek one step closer until he could brush his nose against Stiles. He took the chain and draped it over his neck, but instead of falling against his chest, it swung out and stuck to Stiles’ sending a spark through both of them. Instead of driving them apart, the shock brought them closer and Derek steading Stiles with a hand at his waist, fingers curling into his belt loops.

Warm, blue light grew between them, encircling them and Stiles reached out and laid a hand over Derek’s chest, reassuring himself that his heart was still inside where it belonged. Derek mirrored the action, smiling. “They’re beating in sync,” he whispered.

“I think they always did,” Stiles responded. “My mom told me I would save the man with no heart from a sad and lonely existence.”

“You did.” Derek rubbed his nose against Stiles’ before kissing the tip. “Laura said you were a danger to my heart but I sought you out anyway.”

“I was a danger, but not to _ your _ heart,” Stiles said, tapping the one still stuck together between them. “To this one.” It swung between them, still firmly stuck together. “Think we’ll be stuck together forever?”

Derek shrugged. “I can think of worse people to be stuck with.” 

Stiles’ grin grew until looking at it made Derek’s own cheeks hurt. Before anything else could be said, he leaned in and pressed his lips to Derek’s, wrapping his arms around his neck and tangling his fingers in his hair. As the kiss deepened and the blue glow completely encircled them, there was a quiet clink of the charms separating and the kiss melted into happy laughter as they hugged each other tighter deciding, without discussion, even without the charm, they would stick together.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are food for the writer's soul!
> 
> Come say 'hi' to me on tumblr! I'm josjournal.


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